Traditions
by alloftheorangejuice
Summary: The Winchesters finally have an opportunity to celebrate the holidays in between hunts, and this time their good friend Raven is around to join them in the festivities. But Castiel is clueless about Christmas, Sam is far from enthused and Raven can't shake the desire to share a cup of egg nog by the fire with a pair of bright blue eyes. CastielxOC (Female, 25)


Hello, everyone! This is the first Fanfiction I've written in, well, probably over a decade. I'm a writer, as in I work on my own original peices often, but I also found I enjoy writing things like this. It's not my primary focus, but it does give me another outlet for my creativity that allows me to contruct stories out of worlds that already exist. It may certainly not be my best work, but I hope you enjoy it, anyway.

Castiel is one of my absolute favorite fictional characters, so here is a story about the brothers, the angel and an original character of mine, Raven Martheltone.

Are you ready for the holidays?

Hope you enjoy!

Dean whipped the item across the living room in a blur of red and white before I could see what it was. I jolted, but it landed soft in my lap.

"Oh, my god," I said, clutching it in my hands.

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

"Dean!" I said, feeling the inner fabric of the Santa hat scratch over my ears as I put it on.

I felt my cheeks flush and couldn't help but smile wide.

Dean gave a curt smile in response and returned his attention to the contents of the plastic bag before him. "Good. I've been thinking that maybe-"

"We should have a Christmas!" I said, opening my mouth in exaggerated excitement.

"Yeah," Dean said. "We should."

"Christmas?" said a voice from the hall.

I turned to see Sam enter the living room.

His hair was still damp and he tucked a loose lock behind an ear before leaning on the doorway. He started to button up his plaid shirt and looked over at me on the living room chair.

I gave him a cheezy smile and shook my head quickly, making the pom-pom dance around my shoulders.

Sam responded with an 'oh-god' smirk and rolled his head.

"Hey! I like Christmas. I miss Christmas," I lamented, slumping my shoulders.

"Aren't you an atheist?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, but I was raised with this holiday. It's fun! It reminds me of family and friends and showing people you care and great traditions and... and isn't this the first time you've actually had a place that's more like a house and a lot less like a hotel room? I mean, this is a perfect opportunity, yeah?"

The alarm inside my head that blares when I sound like an overly-emotional teenage girl has never stopped me from being excited about December 25th, even if I was twenty-six. I was unabashedly excited over the idea of celebrating again.

"I haven't had Christmas since I was back at my parents' house," I added.

"Yeah, Sammy, don't you think Raven here deserves a Christmas? After everything that's been goin' on," he said looking at Sam and gesturing to me with a half opened box of candy canes.

Sam gave Dean a look and I saw the tension immediately creep over their faces. I didn't want to be the cause of anything heated.

"I mean, we don't- we don't have to. I just thought-"

"It'd be fun," Dean finished. "Right, Sam?"

Sam gave his typical I-don't-know eyebrow raise and moved across the room to sit by the desk.

The room was one of five in the small house, which we had rented for a few nights because it was close to a job we wanted to keep our eye on. It was cute. Quaint. Filled with old but cozy tapestries, a semi-stocked kitchen and a fireplace. And of course, two bedrooms, one of which had two separate beds for the brothers and the other which I had gladly assumed control of. It was the first time I'd ever stayed with the Winchesters without being in a separate rented space nearby.

The living room where we were getting accoustomed to having our daily talks had a sofa and two armchairs around a coffee table and a fireplace. Dean and I sat mirroring each other on the chairs as I daydreamed about Kenny G's Christmas music and gazed into the fire. I heard Dean rustle through the plastic bag.

"Hey, where'd you get that stuff, anyway?" Sam asked.

"This stuff," Dean said, crumpling up the plastic bag in his hands, "I found it in Dad's safe house storage the last time we were around."

"Really?" asked Sam.

"Yeah. Really. Thought it might be fun, could come in handy. And Raven likes the hat, so..."

I heard my name and snapped out of my trance, but before I could open my mouth to speak, the flapping of wings echoed in the near empty space.

I craned my neck to look over my shoulder and found Castiel standing by the doorway, his hands at his sides in his classic, neutral stance, his trenchcoat still waving around his knees.

"Cas! Perfect," Dean said. "How about Christmas this year?" he said, standing up.

"How about Christmas?" Cas repeated with a serious nod.

"Yeah, you know. Egg nog? Decorating the tree? Christmas cookies? Ohhhh, Christmas cookies. Raveeeennn!" he growled playfully, drawing out my name and clenching his hands in mock desire.

"Yes, I will make Christmas cookies. And brownies. That was a thing for us, too, Christmas brownies," I said in a ramble as I shifted myself to sit with my legs over the sidearm of the chair to face Castiel.

"Don't you celebrate Christmas? I mean, you're an angel. That's like a thing for you guys, right?" Dean asked.

"I-" Castiel started, "I have never celebrated Christmas. Christmas is a pagan holiday that has nothing to with the birth of Jesus Christ. It was actually-"

"Okay, okay, I get it big shot. No need for a history lesson. So, this'll be your first time. That's fine. We're going to bring you up to speed. Raven?"

"Dean," I said.

"You're in charge of getting the wings in ship-shape for celebration and festivities," he said, pointing a finger at me.

"What does that even mean?"

"I don't know, but start with the basics. Nothing overwhelming. Think Santa hats, candy canes and..."

There was a silent pause in the room.

"...and Christmas trees."

"Yes, and Christmas trees," Dean approved.

Dean walked over to Cas and gave me a hard high-five on the way over. I gritted my teeth in exaggeration as I shook my hand in pretend pain.

Calm down, Raven. You're acting like a nerd. Be excited, just be normal. Ugh.

I glanced over to Castiel. His eyes were glowing blue in the low light of the room. I shifted in my seat and swallowed.

"Cas," Dean said, slapping him on the shoulder. "Get ready to be Christmas-ified."

"Whaaaat?" I exclaimed, watching Castiel furrow his brows and shift uncomfortably under the weight of Dean's hand. "That's not a thing. Try... try-"

"Christ-ified."

"No, that sounds like crucified. That's creepy."

"Chrisi... Christmasi-"

"We," I started, hopping up from the chair, "are going to teach you about holiday traditions, Castiel."

The angel looked over to me as I approached and Dean stepped away.

When I was a foot away from him, I held his gaze, knowing I looked cute in my Santa hat. I let his other-worldly gaze take me in as he looked back at me, or down to me, rather. He had me by about six inches, but our eye contact was still just as real and just as sweet.

"You alright with that?" I asked with a smile.

Castiel's eyes widened a bit and his mouth opened slightly.

I was sure he didn't know that he had so many tells, but none-the-less I could see his hands twitching and his eyes flickering in nervouness. I hated to admit that seeing Castiel lay waste to the bad guys and then turn around and be so downright innocent was incredibly sexy. I tried to shake the thought from my head with little success.

But I didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

He took a short inhale and nodded.

I returned a close-lipped grin.

"First things first. Christmas tree," Dean chirped.

"I don't know if they'll allow it," Sam said, shocking us with his return to the conversation.

"Eh, hell with 'em. Seriously, we can do that. To hell with em'," Dean said with raised brows.

Sam gave another roll of his eyes and opened his laptop.

I looked over to Sam. I felt bad. As much as I wanted to revisit my good memories, I didn't want him to be forced to revisit bad ones.

"But we need supplies," I pointed out, taking a step away from Castiel. "We're fresh out of a lot of things."

"And we're going to need egg nog."

"Oh, hell yeah."

"And something to spike it."

"Spike it?" Cas said with a slight squint.

"Yeah, like-" Dean started. "You know what, nevermind. I'll show you later. Raven, you and Cas go hit up the Christmas tree store and I'm going to go get some supplies."

I turned back to Cas to find him giving me a gentle smile.

I blushed.

"And Sam," Dean said, grabbing his jacket and walking towards the door, "Hold down the fort, will you? The last thing we need is a vamp to knock our lights out before we can put up ours."

Dean gave us a wink before shutting the door, leaving Sam focused on his research and Castiel and I suddenly standing uncomfortably close.

I let the awkwardness simmer for a minute before sighing loudly and shrugging my shoulders.

"Well," I said, "what traditions do you know?"


End file.
